"mony be of weight any where, you are fure to have "it in the ampleft manner," &c. &c. &c.

Thus we fee every one of his works hath been extolled by one or other of his moft inveterate enemies; and to the fuccefs of them all they do unanimously give teftimony, But it is fufficient, enftar omnium, to behold the great critic, Mr. Dennis, forely lamenting it, even from the Effay on Criticism to this day of the Dunciad!“ A "most notorious inftance (quoth he) of the depravity of 66 genius and taste, the approbation this Effay meets with "I can fafely affirm, that I never attacked any of "these writings, unless they had fuccefs infinitely be"yond their merit. This, though an empty, has been 66 a popular fcribbler. The epidemic madness of the "times has given him reputation .-If, after the cruel "treatment fo many extraordinary men (Spencer, lord "Bacon, Ben Johnson, Milton, Butler, Otway, and "others) have received from this country, for these "laft hundred years, I fhould fhift the scene, and fhew

all that penury changed at once to riot and profuse"nefs; and more fquandered away upon one object, than

would have fatisfied the greater part of thofe extraor"dinary men; the reader to whom this one creature

fhould be unknown, would fancy him a prodigy of ❝art and nature, would believe that all the great quali"ties of these perfons were centered in him alone. But "if I fhould venture to affure him, that the PEOPLE "OF ENGLAND had made fuch a choice-the reader "would either believe me a malicious enemy, and flan❝derer; or that the reign of the laft (queen Anne's "miniftry was defigned by fate to encourage fools "." But it happens, that this our poet never had any place, penfion, or gratuity, in any shape, from the faid glori ous queen, or any of her minifters. All he owed, in the whole course of his life, to any court, was a fubfcription

þ Dennis, Pref. to his Reflect. on the Eflay on Criticism.

c Preface to his Remarks on Homer.

d

Rem. op Homer, p. 8, 9.

U 2

for

for his Homer, of 2001. from king George I. and 100l. from the prince and princess.

However, left we imagine our author's fuccefs was conftant and univerfal, they acquaint us of certain works in a lefs degree of repute, whereof, although owned by others, yet do they affure us he is the writer. Of this fort Mr. DENNIS ascribes to him two Farces, whose names he does not tell, but affures us that there is not one jest in them and an imitation of Horace, whofe title he does not mention, but affures us, it is much more execrable than all his works. The DAILY JOURNAL, May 11, 1728, affures us, "He is below Tom Durfey in the "Drama, because (as that writer thinks) the Marriage"Hater matched, and the Boarding School are better "than the What-d'ye-call-it;" which is not Mr. P's, but Mr. Gay's. Mr. GILDON affures us, in his New Rehearsal, p. 48, "That he was writing a Play of the "lady Jane Grey;" but it afterwards proved to be Mr. Rowe's. We are affured by another, "He wrote a "pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripes;" which proved "to be one Dr. Wagstaff's. Mr. THEOBALD affures us, in Mift of the 27th of April, "That the treatise of "the Profound is very dull, and that Mr. Pope is the "author of it." The writer of Gulliveriana is of another opinion; and fays, "The whole, or greatest part, "of the merit of this treatise muft and can only be "afcribed to Gulliver." [Here, gentle reader! cannot I but smile at the ftrange blindness and pofitiveness of men; knowing the faid treatise to appertain to nonc other but to me, Martinus Scriblerus.]

We are affured, in Mift of June 8, "That his own "Plays and Farces would better have adorned the Dun“ciad, than those of Mr. Theobald; for he had neither “genius for Tragedy nor Comedy." Which whether true or not, it is not eafy to judge; in as much as he had attempted neither. Unless we will take it for granted,

with Mr. Cibber, that his being once very angry at hearing a friend's play abused, was an infallible proof the Play was his own; the faid Mr. Cibber thinking it impoffible for a man to be much concerned for any but himfelf: "Now let any man judge (faith he) by this con"cern, who was the true mother of the child?"

If

But from all that hath been faid, the difcerning reader will collect, that it little availed our author to have any candour, fince, when he declared he did not write for others, it was not credited; as little to have any modefty, fince, when he declined writing in any way himfelf, the prefumption of others was imputed to him. he fingly enterprised one great work, he was taxed of boldness and madness to a prodigy: if he took afsistants in another, it was complained of, and represented as a great injury to the public'. The loftieft heroics, the loweft ballads, treatises against the state or church, fatires on lords and ladies, raillery on wits and authors, fquabbles with booksellers, or even full and true accounts of monsters, poisons, and murders; of any hereof was there nothing fo good, nothing fo bad, which hath not at one or other feason been to him ascribed. If it bore no author's name, then lay he coneealed; if it did, he fathered it upon that author to be yet better concealed: if it refembled any of his ftyles, then was it evident; if it did not, then he disguised it on fet purpose. Yea, even direct oppofitions in religion, principles, and politics, have equally been fuppofed in him inherent. Surely a moft rare and fingular character! of which let the reader make what he can.

Doubtless moft commentators would hence take occafion to turn all to their author's advantage, and from the testimony of his very enemies would affirm, That his capacity was boundless, as well as his imagination; that

i Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 19.

k Burnet's Homerides, p. 1. of his translation of the Iliad.

Į The London and Mist's Journals, on his undertaking the Odyssey.

he was a perfect mafter of all ftyles, and all arguments; and that there was in those times no other writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, fave he himself. But as this is not our own fentiment, we shall determine on nothing; but leave thee, gentle reader, to fteer thy judgment equally between various opinions, and to chuse whether thou wilt incline to the Teftimonies of Authors avowed, or of Authors concealed; of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not.

MAR

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

of the POEM.

THIS Poem, as it celebrateth the moft grave and antient of things, Chaos, Night, and Dulness; fo is it of the moft grave and antient kind. Homer, (faith Ariftotle) was the firft who gave the form, and (faith Horace) who adapted the measure, to heroic poefy. But even before this, may be rationally prefumed from what the antients have left written, was a piece by Homer compofed, of like nature and matter with this of our poet. For of epic fort it appeareth to have been, yet of matter furely not unpleasant, witness what is reported of it by the learned archbishop, Euftathius, in Odyff. x, And accordingly Ariftotle, in his Poetic, chap. iv. doth further fet forth, that as the Iliad and Odyssey gave example to Tragedy, fo did this poem to Comedy its first idea.

From these authors also it should feem, that the hero, or chief perfonage of it, was no lefs obfcure, and his understanding and fentiments no lefs quaint and ftrange (if indeed not more fo) than any of the actors of our poem. MARGITES was the name of this perfonage, whom antiquity recordeth to have been dunce the first; and furely from what we hear of him, not unworthy to be the root of fo fpreading a tree, and fo numerous a pofterity. The poem therefore celebrating him was properly and abfolutely a Dunciad; which though now unhappily loft, yer is its nature fufficiently known by the infallible tokens, aforefaid. And thus it doth appear, that the first Dunciad was the first Epic Poem, written by Homer himfelf and anterior even to the Iliad or Odyffey.

Now, forafmuch as our poet hath tranflated those two famous works of Homer which are yet left, he did con